Singapore jails maid for burying baby in employer’s yard

January 28, 2014 11:14 am

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By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, A mother holding her baby’s little hand/FILEJan 28 – A Singapore court on Tuesday sentenced an Indonesian maid to three months in jail for burying her dead baby in her employer’s backyard.

Musliyati, 37, who goes by one name, had faced up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine – or both – for secretly disposing of the remains.

She had been charged under a section of the penal code called “offences affecting the human body”.

According to court documents, Musliyati gave birth to a baby boy in the toilet of her Singaporean employer’s home in the early hours of November 8 last year.

She subsequently scooped the baby from the toilet bowl where it had fallen into, and cut off the umbilical cord.

She then wrapped the baby in a blanket, placed him in a black plastic bag and buried the body in a hole in the backyard of the home, according to the documents.

Forensic investigations ascertained that the baby was “between eight and nine months intra-uterine gestation” but did not conclude if it was stillborn, court documents said.

After complaining of dizziness in the afternoon, the employer sent her to the hospital, where doctors found the remnants of the umbilical cord still intact.

Police were called in to the house for investigations, and a dog from the K-9 unit discovered the makeshift grave.

The documents said Musliyati was able to mask her pregnancy by wearing corsets and loose shirts.

Thousands of women, many of them from impoverished villages in Indonesia, the Philippines and India work as domestic helpers in affluent Singapore.

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